Melissa, Josh and Baratunde have truly excellent posts cataloging the McCain-Palin campaign’s descent into outright bigotry and Nixonlandia. Earlier this week I suggested that the progressive counteroffensive should aim to destroy McCain’s reputation for all time. After an evening discussing this with friends over beers, I’m wondering about the logistics of such a campaign.

Remember in 2000 when McCain refused to call for the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse? It was a blatant play to the ugliest aspects of American politics, an unsubtly coded attempt to identify himself with white resentment. But what was even more astonishing was what happened after he lost the GOP primary. Here’s CNN from April 19, 2000:

Former GOP presidential candidate John McCain called for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from atop the South Carolina Statehouse on Wednesday, acknowledging that his refusal to take such a stance during his primary battle for the Palmetto State was a "sacrifice of principle for personal ambition."

This was pretty widely hailed as a triumph of straight talk. McCain admitted such transparent cynicism! What a breath of fresh air! Now, there’s another way of looking at this moment. One that a less, frankly, white group of trail reporters might have picked up on: despite finding the flag personally offensive — because it is a symbol of racial subjugation; and treason in the interest of white supremacy — McCain didn’t mind exploiting it. He didn’t mind aggravating the most noxious division in America if it served his ambition.

White privilege helps explain why the press gave McCain a pass. But there’s also a simple explanation making up a large part of it: proximity and access to the man made much of the national press believe he was fundamentally decent. It’s an odd act of self-loathing when you think about it. All it takes is one man’s attention to get you to melt in his gaze, to kick your heels up on the tire swing and laugh. It’s like your parents told you: displaying self-respect will generate respect from others. What reporters took from McCain as warmth was actually exploitation.

Is there any reason to believe this episode won’t happen again? That when McCain loses — when the forces of progressivism stand up in this country against the demagoguery, the venality, the manufactured outrage and the racism of his campaign — he won’t make another staged act of contrition? My friends, I accepted the advice of those who had so badly misled our country all these years, and I said some things on the campaign trail that did not reflect my true feelings toward President Obama. It was a sacrifice of principle for personal ambition… What would stop the press from once again believing their perception of the Real McCain is the real McCain, against the evidence of his behavior in two presidential elections?

The answer may be: nothing. It may be that this is just the way the rules work, and the rules aren’t fair and there’s one set of standards for John McCain and another for everyone else.

But there’s only one thing that can possibly stop this from happening: you. Every single time McCain is quoted in the press as he slithers back to his pathetic senatorial career, put his words of the last few days in everything you write. Let what he says in the next four weeks become the lead paragraph of his obituary. Never let this be seen as a deviation. Let it stand as the true measure of the man who told us that Courage Matters — the truth of his character, revealed through his behavior during the race he chose to be his defining moment. Do not allow him to disavow the course that he’s chosen. Let him be known forever as what he’s chosen to be in the twilight of his career: a brazen, craven coward.